STATEMENT OF MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG ON IMPROVED ALLOCATION OF HOMELAND SECURITY FUNDING BASED ON RISK

Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano Reduced the Number of Locations Eligible for Urban Area Security Initiative Program

“We have long argued that homeland security funding should be allocated based on risk and targeted cities like New York must be the priority in order to prevent a future attack. With resources scarce, it’s even more important to stop thinly spreading the money around the country without taking risk into account. Secretary Napolitano has made the politically difficult, but correct decision to reduce the number of cities receiving urban area homeland security dollars. Last week, when the NYPD arrested two men plotting terrorist attacks in our city, we once again saw that the threat of terrorism remains very real and we remain a prime target. I want to thank President Obama and Secretary Napolitano for preventing further reductions in security funding to New York City and setting the course for future Federal funding decisions to be based on threat assessments.”